Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	mortal_a	sin_n	venial_a	6,152	5	13.8485	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10877	A short and sure way to heauen, and present happines Taught in a treatise of our conformity with the will of God. Written by the Reuerend Father Alfonsus Rodriguez of the Society of Iesus, in his worke intituled, The exercise of perfection and Christian vertue. Translated out of Spanish.; Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas. Part 1. Treatise 8. English	Rodríguez, Alfonso, 1526-1616.; I. C., fl. 1630.	1630 (1630)	STC 21144; ESTC S102292	144,041	352

into Africke and wasting all sparing not man nor woman Clergy or secular neither children nor old age a came at last to lay downe their siege before Hippo where he was Bishop with a mighty Army beleagering it about S. Augustin seing so great affliction the Churches without Clergy Citties vninhabited priuate houses destitute wept bitterly in that old age of his and assembling the Clergy he said vnto them I haue prayed vnto God to deliuer y●● from these dangers or to giue you patience or lastly to take me out of this life that I may not liue to see so many calamities the last of these three God hath granted me and presently he fell sicke in the third month of the siege of that disease wherof afterwards he dyed And we read in the life of our B. F. S. Ignatius an other example almost like to this Lib. 4. c. 16. vit S. P. Ignatij This is a perfection proper vnto the Saints so to resent the calamities of the Church and the sinnes which are cōmitted against the Maiesty of Almighty God as rather to desire to dy then indure the sight therof There is yet an other reason both excellent good and of great perfection to desire to dy and begge it at the hands of God which is that we may be free and no more subiect to offend him for it is most certaine that so long as we are in this life we can haue no assurance from falling into mortall sinne as being not ignorant that others who haue receaued more fauours and graces from God Almighty then we who were truly Saints and great Saints to haue come to fall and this is one reason which makes the seruants of God both liue in greater feare and most earnestly desire to dy If it be lawfull for one to wish that he had neuer been borne or neuer had being on the conditiō he had neuer sinned how much more reason hath one to wish to dy seing that sinne is a farre greater euill then to haue no being and it is better neuer to haue been then to haue sinned Math. 26 14. Bonum erat ei si natus non fuisset homo ille it had been better saith our Sauiour speaking of him who sold him and betrayed him that he had neuer been borne and S. Ambrose explicating this of Ecclesiastes Et laudaui Ambr. s 18. in ps 118. Eccl. 4.2 3. magis mortuos quàm viuentes feliciorem vtroque iudicaui qui necdum natus est saith Mortuus praefertur viuenti quia peccar● d●finit mortuo praefertur qui natus non est quia peccare nesciuit he who is dead is preferred to him who liueth because he ceaseth to sinne any more and he who was neuer borne is preferred vnto the dead because he neuer knew what it was to sinne wherfore it were an excellent exercise to actuate our selues whilst we are in prayer in this deuotion Domine ne permittas me seperari à te Lord do not permit me to be seperated from thee ô Lord if there is no remedy but I must offend thee take me away presently rather then leaue me in the occasion of offending thee for my part I desire not life but only to serue thee with it and if I may not vse it to thy seruice I care not for it this were an exercise most pleasing vnto God and most profitable to our selues since herein we exercise both an act of griefe an acte of detestation of sinne an acte of humility and of the loue of God and it is a request of the most gratfull thing which we can require of Almighty God It is recounted of S. Lewis King of Frăce S. Ludo Rex Gal. liae that his Mother Blanch would say somtimes vnto him I had rather my sonne see the dead before mine eyes then euer in mortall sinne and this her wish and desire was so acceptable vnto God and so much force had this her blessing of him that it is reported of him how in all his life he neuer committed any mortall sinne and who knoweth but the same petition and desire should worke produce the like effect in vs. And which is yet more we may wel wish for death not only to free ourselues from mortall sinnes but also to eschew veniall which we so abound with in this miserable life and that because it becometh a seruant of Almighty God not only to stand resolued rather to dy then commit a mortall sinne but euen to loose his life rather then to tell an vntruth which is but a veniall sinne And whosoeuer should giue his life for such a cause as this S. Tho. 2.2 q. 124 a. 5. ad 2. should dy a Martyr Now it is most certaine that we cānot liue without committing many veniall sinnes septies enim cadet Iustus Prou. 24.16 the Iust doth fall seauen times that is to say very often and the longer you liue the oftner shall you fall Neither do the seruants of Almighty God desire to dy to be deliuered only from veniall sinne but euen to see themselues exempt and free from their many faults and imperfections and so numerous tentations and calamities as they experiēce daily wherfore that holy man said well 〈◊〉 de ●pis O Lord what do I suffer when being in my prayer thinking on heauenly things a wholl band of carnall things present themselues before me Alas what a kind of life is this where tribulations and miseries are neuer wanting where all is set with snares and compassed with enimies for when one tribulation or tentation goeth away another cometh yea and during the first conflict also many others come one after an other vnlooked for how can a life be l●●ed that hath so many afflictions and is subiect to so many calamities and miseries how is it called a life that begetteth so many deaths and plagues We read of a great Saint that she was vsed to say that if she might haue her choice of any thing shee should choose nothing but death because by means of it her soule should be freed from feare of euer doing any thing which might bring hinderance vnto pure loue And in this manner there seemes to be more perfection to desire to be out of this life for to decline veniall sinnes faults and imperfections then to shune the falling into mortall ones and that because one may be moued to desire to be out of the occasion of committing mortall sinne more for feare of hell and out of selfe loue and interest then for the honour of God but to be so inflamed with the loue of God as to wish rather to dy then commit a veniall sinne or fall into faults and imperfections supposes a great purity of intention and is a point of high perfection But some one will say I desire to liue vnto the end to make satisfaction for the faults and offences which I haue committed vnto which I answere that if in prolonging our

being come and she no sooner entred into the Church but shee plainly distinguished the most sweet voyce of her happy sonne whilst the Antiphon was intoned and therewith being rendred assured of his glory in heauen shee banished all sorrow from her made no end of giuing thanks to God for comforting her with hearing euery day his Angelicall voyce in the harmonious musicke and diuine seruice of those Religious men and enriching her with a fauour and grace so extraordinary and great A certaine Author writeth how a knight once going a hunting roused a wild beast in the pursuit wherof he was cast behind with only one seruant with him al the other being eager in following of the chase notwithstanding he spurred on a pace and hauing lost the cry of the hounds strayed from the rest so farre as he came out of all way vnto a certaine groue where he heard the voyce of a man singing wōdrous sweetly the knight meruailing to heare any such voyce in those desert places knowing that it could be none of his followers and no lesse certaine that it was none of that Country people Hauing a great desire to know whose voyce it was entred in farther into the thicket discouered on the sodaine a leporous person of a horrible aspect whose flesh was so rottē as it easely droped of from euery limme of him The knight much amazed at such a spectacle confirmed his startled heart and drew nigh and being come vnto him in saluting him courtiously he demanded of him whether it were he who had sung so sweetly or no the lazer answered sir it was my selfe and that voyce which seemed so sweet vnto you was mine how is it possible answered the knight for you to be so cheerfull in such horrible torments the poore men replyed sir you must vnderstand that betwixt God and me there is no other partition then this mud-wall of my body which you see and this being once away I shall enioy the cleere vision of his diuine Maiesty Seing this therfore euery day falling so fast away it maketh me reioyce and sing with a wonderfull gladnes of heart awaiting still an entire disolution of it vntill when I cannot depart to enioy Almighty God the true spring and fountaine of life from whence flow forth those streames which neuer dry yp nor faile S. Cyprian writes of a certaine Bishop S. Cypr. lib. de mortal who being in the extremity of his sicknes and much fearing death which he saw before his eyes humbly beseeched our Sauiour to prolong his life when presently there appeared vnto him an Angell in the shape of a beautifull young man of comly feature excellent personage a shining aspect and goodly stature who with a voyce mixed with grauity and security said vnto him pati timetis exire non vultis quid faciam vobis you feare tu suffer you are loath for to depart what shall I do with you giuing him to vnderstand that his repugnance do depart this life was no waies gratefull vnto God and S. Cyprian adds that the Angell spake these words vnto him vnto the end that he should recount them againe and teach them vnto others when he should be in the agony of death Simon Metaephrastes relates Surius to 1. fol. 237. and Surius frō him how the holy Abbot Theodosius knowing how profitable the memory of death was vnto man and desirous through the consideration therof to giue his disciples occasion of farther progresse in deuotion caused a sepulcher to be opened and standing about it with his disciples he said behould the graue open but who is ●here of you who wil haue the honour to be first buryed in it and haue his funerall celebrated by vs One of his disciples named ●asilius a Priest and a very vertuous man being well prepared to dy did readily offer himselfe and falling on his knees said with great cheerfulnesse Father giue me your benedictiō for I if it may please you will be the first man for whom you shall sing the office of Requiem it was his desire and the Saint did grant it him Then the holy Abbot Theodosius commanded that they should vse all the ceremonies which vse to be a● the funeralls of the dead whilst he was yet aliue the first the third and ninth dayes office as also an other seruice for the Q●arantain when behould the wonder at the end of these offices and the seruice of fourty dayes basilius being whole and sound without feauer head ake or any other paine as if he had falne into a sweet and pleasant sleep passed out of this life vnto Almighty God to re●eaue of him the reward of his vertue and that promptitude cheerfulnesse with which he had wished to see himselfe with our Sauiour Iesus Christ And that we might see how gratfull vnto God the readines and cheerfulnes was of this religious man for to depart this life this his death was seconded by an other Miracle For according to Simij Metaphrastes for the space of fourty dayes more after his death the Abbot Theodosius beheld him cōming vnto vespera's singing in the Quire with the rest of his disciples howbeit that none els saw him or heard him sing excepting one Aetius a man of eminent vertue aboue the rest who heard him sing but could not see him This Aetius went to Theodosius and demanded of him whither he did not heare their brother Basilius sing in the Quire among the rest yes answered the Abbot I both heare and see him and if you please will likewise procure that you may see him too and so the next day being both together in the Quire with the other Religious during the diuine office Theodosius saw Basilius as he vsed to do in the Quire singing with the rest and he pointed him out with his finger to shew him Aetius both making their prayer together and beseeching of God to open the others eyes that he might see him to and Aetius hauing perceaued him and knowing him to be the same ranne with great feruour to imbrace him but he could not for the other disappeared saying as he went so as to be heard of euery one Farwell my deare Fathers and brothers farwell for heare after you shall see me in this world no more In the Chronicles of the Order of S. Augustin Chron. ord S. Aug. cē infra 3. it is related how S. Colomban the Younger Nephew and disciple of S. Colomban the Abbot being afflicted with a violent feauer and drawing towards his end desiring out of the assurance of his hope to dy There appeared vnto him a yong mā shining with glorious light who said vnto him vnderstand that the prayers and teares which thy Abbot sheds for the recouery of thy health doth hinder thy deliuery out of this mortall prison whervpon the Saint sweetly made his moane and complaint vnto his Abbot saying in woefull manner Why do you constraine me to liue in such a miserable life as this